Beauty, Mercy, Justice

Doc Watson, RIP

Legendary folk musician Doc Watson died yesterday at the age of 87 at his home in North Carolina. Blind since the age of one, Doc first began his innovative flatpicking style while trying to play the fiddle parts in a band without a fiddler. His timing was impeccable, as this coincided with the Folk Revival of the 60s, when his kind of mountain music was being rediscovered.

I saw Doc Watson many times in the 70s at bluegrass festivals, and this clip captures the man’s essential sweetness and shows why he was so beloved by audiences: